During the Great Depression, a lot of people survived mentally by doing hobby stuff at home, and others survived physically by baking and cooking at home, which was obviously cheaper than going out to eat (not to mention that most people outside big cities had vegetable gardens and such).
After WW2 there was money around again, and due to the war being over, it was possible to start up manufacturing and such for the consumer market (also there were suddenly millions more consumers with all the boys home from the war). So the Evil Marketing Geniuses used their subtle (ha!) influencing mojo to convince people that…
Homemade stuff was no good, and only manufactured consumer goods and processed food was “modern” and “hip”!
And now here we are, and nobody has time to cook or bake or make anything at home, because…
Both husband and wife must work full-time to be able to afford all the manufactured stuff and processed food that YOU MUST BUY as a card-carrying American Consumer…not to mention the overpriced housing, cars that cost (on average!) as much as my family’s first house, and above all the insane price of health care and insurance!
In response to this.